1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, in particularly to a connector apparatus capable of connecting with at least one detachable module.
2. Description of Related Art
As the electronic industry growing rapidly, nowadays various kinds of electronic devices are used in our daily lives. For inputting commands to control the electronic devices, or transmitting information from one electronic device to another, at least one connector is arranged on a circuit board of the electronic device.
For example, a personal computer usually has a plurality of connectors such as universal serial bus (USB) connectors, external serial advance technology attachment (e-SATA) connectors, RJ-45 connectors, high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connectors. With the connectors, the personal computer is capable of communicating with external controlling devices and receiving controlling commands, or the personal computer can be connected to another electronic device for mutually transmitting information.
However, in order to avoid using physical transmission line and expand the transmission distance of information, wireless transmission modules are arranged on the novel electronic devices. For example, the wireless transmission module can be radio frequency (RF) module, infrared (IR) module, Bluetooth module, and wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) module. Information can be transmitted between electronic devices through wireless transmission module, no physical transmission line is needed and the information transmission can be easier.
However, either connector or wireless transmission module will occupy a quite large area on the circuit board. If there are many connectors or wireless transmission module needed to arrange on the circuit board, the size of the circuit board needs to be increased. Sometimes, it will affect the circuit layout of the circuit board and make the production more difficult.
Therefore, a stacked connector apparatus is developed for solving the above problem. A plurality of connectors, wireless transmission module are vertically stacked on the circuit board and consequently they only occupy an area for mounting one connector on the circuit board. Moreover, Taiwan patent M403159 disclosed a wireless transmission module. The wireless transmission module is composed of a insulating body and a transmission module. The insulating body has one or more connecting ports, and a receiving space therein, and the connecting ends of plurality of terminals extend into the receiving space. The transmission module has signal transmission portion, signal processing portion and a plurality of adapting terminals. Therefore, when the transmission module is connected to the insulating body, the press-contacting portions of the adapting terminals can be elastically contacted with the connecting ends of the plurality terminals, so that the transmission module is electrically connected to the terminals of the insulating body.
However, the wireless transmission module of the above wireless transmission apparatus has a circuit unit in the transmission module electrically connected to the signal transmission portion and the signal processing portion. And the circuit unit has a plurality of welding portion for the adapting terminals welded thereto. Thus, the adapting terminals need to be additionally manufactured and then welded to the circuit unit. Such a process is inconvenient and the cost thereof can not be decreased. In addition, since the adapting terminals need to be arranged to contact against the adapting terminals on the insulating body, the adapting terminal needs to be bent and forms a press-contacting surface, such that the thickness of the wireless transmission module can not be decreased.
Therefore, a novel stacked connector apparatus is needed, it can be composed of a plurality of connectors and wireless module as wall as the types of the wireless module can be arbitrary changed and the usability can be increased. Besides, the manufacturing cost can be lowered and the dimensions of the product can be downsized.